You are using an older browser version. Please use a supported version for the best MSN experience.

Unparalleled parity? Boys basketball season full of surprises could lead to memorable March

The Plain Dealer Cleveland 2/2/2023 Matt Goul, cleveland.com

Archbishop Hoban junior Jonas Nichols collides with St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Aidan Callahan on a drive in the first half of play.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — When coaches file their votes this weekend to determine seeding for the OHSAA boys basketball district tournaments, the results will be anyone’s guess.

Archbishop Hoban junior Jonas Nichols shoots against St. Vincent-St. Mary in the first half of play.

Even St. Edward’s Eric Flannery, whose team has established itself as the top-ranked team in the cleveland.com Top 25, had reservations about just how good his team could be earlier this season.

“I don’t look at one team in this area, including us, and say they’re a clear favorite,” he said after a dominant victory against rival St. Ignatius. “Anybody can beat anybody in the top 15 in this area, which I think is fun. That’s the way it should be.”

Since that 86-64 win against the Wildcats, all St. Edward has done is pass every obstacle in its path amid a season dominated by parity around Northeast Ohio.

Take St. Vincent-St. Mary, which moved up this season to Division I with the Eagles and Wildcats. Coach Dru Joyce II lost two standouts to big college programs — Sencire Harris to Illinois and Ramar Pryor to Cleveland State — and appeared to be in a transitional year after his Fighting Irish lost in December at Walsh Jesuit, which also handed St. Ignatius an early season loss.

Since then, STVM took out Sierra Canyon with Bronny James and a star-studded team from California before an impressive win at Centerville, but stumbled at Stow-Munroe Falls by three and at home to St. Edward.

Joyce blamed himself for his defensive strategy in three of the area losses, but STVM’s success outside of Northeast Ohio while struggling in the area — securing its first victory against a top 25 team with Tuesday’s 50-44 win vs. Archbishop Hoban — illustrates just how unpredictable high school basketball can be this season.

Archbishop Hoban junior Jonas Nichols gets fouled on a drive by St. Vincent-St. Mary junior Jayson Walker in the first half of play.

“We’re the measuring stick still, and I think some teams still get up for us,” Joyce said. “We’re going to get their best game, and that’s just how it is. Our guys haven’t understood it the way they need to understand it.”

Centerville is coming off two straight runs to the Division I state title game, including a championship in 2021, and still has reigning Mr. Basketball winner Gabe Cupps at point guard.

STVM’s performance on the road against that powerhouse — which avenged its state-title loss last year to Pickerington Central by beating the Tigers on the same night STVM beat Sierra Canyon — could be the first shot delivered by a Northeast Ohio team for reason to believe Division I’s state title drought could come to an end.

But who can deliver it?

⦁ No. 1 St. Edward (15-0) looks to return to Dayton with a new backcourt but a returning frontcourt led by Stanford commit Cameron Grant, Danny Lavelle and junior Wendell Henry.

Part of Flannery’s caution early in the year could be blamed on the Eagles’ inability to travel to California for an annual Christmastime trip that usually hands them some losses, learning experiences and bonding opportunities. They had to manufacture those experiences at home, minus the losses, this year with flight cancellations in late December.

Archbishop Hoban junior Joey Hardman shoots a three against St. Vincent-St. Mary in the first half of play.

Senior point guard Lucas Perusek, who’s emerged in the starting backcourt with fellow senior Brevyn Coleman, credited their coaching for pushing ahead with a few more regular-season tests, including Friday’s rematch at rival St. Ignatius and a Feb. 17 matchup with defending Division IV state champion Richmond Heights.

“Everyone’s going to be bringing their best game against us and want to take us down,” Perusek said. “We just have to bring it on the defensive and offensive ends, night in and night out and roll from there.”

⦁ No. 10 St. Ignatius (11-6) has made two straight state semifinal runs, despite hovering near .500 during the course of the regular season the last two years.

“We understand we may have a couple of more losses than some of the top teams, but we also feel we have a way tougher schedule,” St. Ignatius coach Cam Joyce said. “If those teams had our schedule, what would their record be?”

Unlike St. Edward, the Wildcats made their out-of-state trip to Las Vegas for the holidays. They won once and lost twice against teams from Nevada, Texas and California before returning home to start January by beating STVM, 63-62, for Cam Joyce’s first win in four years against his father.

Four days later, St. Edward served them their biggest loss of the year. Two days after that, they responded with an 84-47 win against Mentor at John Carroll during the Scholastic Play By Play Classic for their biggest win of the season.

Archbishop Hoban junior Jonas Nichols drives against St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Lance Hayes in the first half of play.

“I think in the Cleveland area, we’re just really good all around,” junior guard Carter Jackson said. “It’s not congested to one place. Everyone has had their moments. It’s basketball really.”

⦁ No. 3 Garfield Heights (15-3) pushed St. Edward to overtime two weeks ago at the Chet Mason Invitational and could be the leading contender from the area’s public schools.

Sonny Johnson’s Bulldogs lost in December to Division II state title favorite Dayton Chaminade Julienne on a neutral court, but own another showcase win against Huber Heights Wayne and have swept Lake Erie League rival Cleveland Heights, which made it to regionals last year and have four of its top guards back this season.

Archbishop Hoban senior William Scott collides with St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Aidan Callahan on a drive in the first half of play.

The 56-48 OT loss to St. Edward, though, should bolster Garfield Heights’ chances at one of the three district tournament top seeds in the Northeast’s western seeding pool for Division I, which includes St. Edward and St. Ignatius.

“They play similar to us, just hard-nosed defensively,” Johnson said of the Eagles. “We’re playing for a one seed. We know Ed’s is going to get one and we’re playing to get the other one. I think we’ve played enough good teams.”

⦁ No. 6 Stow (15-2) and No. 8 Brecksville-Broadview Heights (15-2) are both from the Suburban League, but will be seeded in different pools for the postseason, with Stow in the East and Brecksville in the West.

St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Lance Hayes goes to work against Archbishop Hoban junior Jonas Nichols in the first half of play.

They split their two regular-season games. The road team won by double digits both times, but Stow has had the hot hand with the more recent victory, couples with its strong showings against St. Vincent-St. Mary and Green.

The Bulldogs are 11-1 since their 65-46 loss in mid-December to Brecksville, and that only other defeat came in triple overtime against Nordonia.

“I think we’re playing a little better,” Stow coach Dave Close said after a 40-36 win at Green. “There’s a lot of variables. You can look at every individual game, and there’s a lot of variables that went into every game. I think we’re playing a little more consistency with a lot of balance between our top four guys who score for us.”

While Brecksville leans on the inside-out combination of junior point guard Luke Skaljac, senior center Chase Garito and a slew of shooters around them, Stow has marched with a sizeable lineup led by 6-6 junior Reece Raymond-Smith and 6-6 senior forward A.J. Pestello Jr.

That length makes Stow as tough as anyone, defensively.

“We’ve had to play good defense against a variety of opponents,” Close said, “and our kids have been fairly consistent in that.”

⦁ No. 4 St. Vincent-St. Mary (13-5) is 1-4 against area top 25 teams, 2-4 against all Northeast Ohio opponents, if counting Youngstown Chaney. Some coaches acknowledge STVM’s resume, which will be considered in an East district pool of Division I teams, is still hard to argue against with those victories against Centerville, Moeller and two nationally recognized programs.

St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Kevin Hamilton drives against Archbishop Hoban in the second half of play.

Dru Joyce has won the last two state championships in Division II. He brought his program up to Division I for the 2019 postseason and reached the state finals that year, too. Joyce has often said he believes the difference between Divisions I and II are the early round games.

That could be truer than ever this year.

“You’re going to have to play every game,” he said. “If you don’t, you’re going to be packing up and going home. I’ve got to make sure our guys understand that.”

Not counting Massillon Jackson’s championship in 2017 for Stark County, the last Division I state-title winner from Northeast Ohio is St. Edward in 2014.

The state for the final weekend of high school basketball has since shifted to Dayton, and this year’s path will take the district tournaments — six for Northeast Ohio in Division I — to Kent State for a handful of regionals. Four district champs will meet for a chance to Dayton and the state semifinals. Two more will play each other, and the winner faces a team from western Ohio in a separate regional final at Kent State.

Traditionally the paths to play a western Ohio team in regionals have been coveted by area teams hoping to avoid their local rivals. That had especially been the case in Division II in recent years with STVM’s dominance.

Last year, Buchtel and Gilmour opted for a western route and met each other in the district finals rather than meet STVM in Canton for regionals. The move paid for Gilmour, which made its second state final four run in school history and met the Irish in the state finals.

Will Division I teams feels the same about STVM?

“It’s a lot of competition,” STVM senior guard and Kent State recruit Lance “L.A.” Hayes said. “They bring their best every time they play us. People are coming for our heads. We know, once tournament comes around, anyone can be beat.”

St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Lance Hayes drives against Archbishop Hoban in the second half of play.

Now that STVM is out of Division II, the area’s parity among the biggest schools can still have a trickle-down effect because of the competition. No. 5 Lutheran West (16-1) has emerged as an area contender with a veteran team from Buchtel (14-6), looking to avenge its district finals loss from last year.

Elsewhere, that parity in Division I has benefited Northeast Ohio’s two most dominant programs in Ohio’s two smaller divisions — No. 9 Lutheran East (12-4), which won a 2021 state crown in Division III and has made five state final fours in the last six years, and No. 2 Richmond Heights (19-0), which is coming off its first Division IV state crown in a fourth run to regionals or better.

Both load up their schedules with as many Division I teams as they can.

“Every night you look, somebody’s beating somebody,” Lutheran East coach Sam Liggins said. “There’s an upset or down goes No. 1, but this year I think it’s a wide-open year for everybody, and it’s very exciting to see.”

Archbishop Hoban junior Jonas Nichols shoots against St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Lance Hayes in the first half of play.

When St. Edward took over as the area’s No. 1-ranked team on Jan. 3, it came at the expense of Liggins’ Falcons after their 76-60 loss to Cleveland Heights in late December as the previous No. 1. STVM and St. Ignatius also took turns atop that mantle and now seek a similar nod from the area’s coaches as they vote for top seeds across Northeast Ohio’s district tournaments.

St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Lance Hayes gets fouled on a shot attempt against Archbishop Hoban in the second half of play.

Contact sports reporter Matt Goul on Twitter (@mgoul) or email (mgoul@cleveland.com).

St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Lance Hayes shoots against Archbishop Hoban in the second half of play.

St. Edward senior point guard Lucas Perusek, left, talks with coach Eric Flannery during a scrimmage Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, in Lakewood.

Go to MSN Home

AdChoices

More From The Plain Dealer

The Plain Dealer Cleveland

View the full site